Ok Enough Terry - Fire Ruff Adams and the Assistants!

[SabresBillsFan]

22 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

and The Hockey Guy ranked them 32nd in his early season power rankings 🙂

32 Thoughts today led off with Buffalo talk and the suggestion even Ruff has checked out already. Season is over. 

The one thing TP did do was set himself up for an easy hire upon firing. Jarmo would take the GM job and he's already on the payroll. You know it's coming, it's just when and how. Will it matter? who knows. can't be much worse. 

Jarmo already had a GM spot with Columbus and it was nothing to write home about. A big fat negative to me. This entire front office, including scouts, coaches and assistant coaches need to go. The entire culture has to change. Way too many people just taking paychecks doing a ***** job. Look at the scouting department. With as many picks this team has had they have tons of misses. The prospects should be much better than this. I would go so far to replace the strength and conditioning coaches as well. 

[SABRES 0311]

1 hour ago, SabresBillsFan said:

Jarmo already had a GM spot with Columbus and it was nothing to write home about. A big fat negative to me. This entire front office, including scouts, coaches and assistant coaches need to go. The entire culture has to change. Way too many people just taking paychecks doing a ***** job. Look at the scouting department. With as many picks this team has had they have tons of misses. The prospects should be much better than this. I would go so far to replace the strength and conditioning coaches as well. 

We keep coming back to the bold every couple years.

[PerreaultForever]

1 hour ago, SabresBillsFan said:

Jarmo already had a GM spot with Columbus and it was nothing to write home about. A big fat negative to me. This entire front office, including scouts, coaches and assistant coaches need to go. The entire culture has to change. Way too many people just taking paychecks doing a ***** job. Look at the scouting department. With as many picks this team has had they have tons of misses. The prospects should be much better than this. I would go so far to replace the strength and conditioning coaches as well. 

I hear you but since he's here I see that as the obvious hire for Terry. What other experienced hockey guy would take the job? Cliff Fletcher? Brian Burke? Hextall? Nobody out there on the unemployment line I'd hire as GM.

But this is why I said in the other thread Give it over to Jarmo and let him hire Torts as coach (just like Columbus). This is not because I think Torts can take us to the promised land but I think maybe, just maybe, he could change the culture and do the "subtraction" phase. EVERYTHING needs to change and that's the sort of shock to the system it might require. 

4 minutes ago, SABRES 0311 said:

We keep coming back to the bold every couple years.

and it is correct. 

[gilbert11]

9 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I think there's no one who expected different. Maybe a couple ppl. I do think a lot of us hoped for different. Idk if that distinction matters.

Of course we all also expected “Glass Man” Norris to get injured again, but so quickly?   Similar to after the trade.  

[Sabres Fan in NS]

NEWSFLASH ...

On October 14, 2025 the Buffalo Sabres have been officially eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoff.  The earliest date in the history of my only the NHL, but for all sporting events right down to the Gladiators of Ancient Rome and probably before that.

FILM AT 11 !!

+++++

These guys are bad - scary bad ...

[Pimlach]

8 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

Over the last two NHL seasons there have been twelve mid-season head coaching changes.  Three of those changes were done by teams in the midst of lost seasons where there was no goal of making the playoffs at the time of the change:

- in 23-24 NJ fired Ruff for Green Travis late in the year

- in 24-25 Chicago fired Richardson after only 26 games, but there were no illusions of them making a playoff run

- also in 24-25, the Flyers fired Tortorella with only 9 games left

The other nine mid-season head coaching changes in the last two seasons, were done by teams that had plans to make the playoffs and at an early enough point in the season where the change was intended to be impactful.  The only one that did not result in an improved winning/points % was Boston replacing Montgomery with Sacco early last year.  The other eight changes all resulted in improved performance, ranging from the modest in Ottawa going from a .423% under DJ Smith to a .500% under Jacques Martin, to the dramatic in Edmonton where the Oilers went from playing .269 hockey under Woodcroft to .702 under Knoblach.  The others were:

in 2023-24:

- NYI went from .544 under Lambert to .608 under Roy and made the playoffs

- LA went from .583 under McLellan to .632 under Hiller and made the playoffs

- STL went from .482 under Berube to .601 under Drew Bannister and missed

- Minn went from .368 under Evason to .587 under Hynes and missed

in 2024-25:

- Det went from .441 under Lalonde to .583 under McLellan and missed

- STL went from .431 under Bannister to .641 under Montgomery and made the playoffs

In the 14 year drought, the Sabres have not made a mid-season coaching change at a point in the season where the change could have a positive impact on that year's standings. They are crazy not to at least try. 

   

Good stuff Archie.   

[mjd1001]

7 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I hear you but since he's here I see that as the obvious hire for Terry. What other experienced hockey guy would take the job? Cliff Fletcher? Brian Burke? Hextall? Nobody out there on the unemployment line I'd hire as GM.

I'm thinking... There might be a good general manager out there that would love to take the Buffalo job with certain conditions. 

Why? There might just be some people out there who enjoy the rebuild. Also, you do have assets on this team that are very good or can be used to bring in other assets to help with the rebuild. 

Now what are those conditions and how come they haven't happened yet? The top of the list for me would be to sign a contract and have it written that this person has total control over the hockey department.0 They can hire and fire coaches and staff and front office members at will, and they don't have to run trades or draft picks by the owner. 

I just don't think our current owner will allow that to happen or anything even close to it.

[Cascade Youth]

The problem is that firing all of these people now would require a big cash investment in buyouts and new hires, something they almost certainly have not budgeted for given the way they've been running the operation.  Terry is just letting this thing drive on autopilot off a cliff - he does not care about you or me.

[PASabreFan]

36 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I'm thinking... There might be a good general manager out there that would love to take the Buffalo job with certain conditions. 

Why? There might just be some people out there who enjoy the rebuild. Also, you do have assets on this team that are very good or can be used to bring in other assets to help with the rebuild. 

Now what are those conditions and how come they haven't happened yet? The top of the list for me would be to sign a contract and have it written that this person has total control over the hockey department.0 They can hire and fire coaches and staff and front office members at will, and they don't have to run trades or draft picks by the owner. 

I just don't think our current owner will allow that to happen or anything even close to it.

I keep hearing about all the young talent on this team. Hoppe wrote about Buffalo's "high end talent and depth." Where? Who? Doesn't every team have some appreciable talent? It's the NHL.

[LGR4GM]

15 minutes ago, Cascade Youth said:

The problem is that firing all of these people now would require a big cash investment in buyouts and new hires, something they almost certainly have not budgeted for given the way they've been running the operation.  Terry is just letting this thing drive on autopilot off a cliff - he does not care about you or me.

He ain't spending ***** until his precious football stadium is built. That's taking in all his liquid capital. 

[DarthEbriate]

14 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

I keep hearing about all the young talent on this team. Hoppe wrote about Buffalo's "high end talent and depth." Where? Who? Doesn't every team have some appreciable talent? It's the NHL.

They have several high-end talent players who are still young. But the issue is that they don't apply it. And it's not even the dreaded inconsistency of young players. Peterka was inconsistent until last season - this season he's gone.

Quinn isn't inconsistent, he's disappeared from who he was as a rookie. Power isn't inconsistent -- he's good in transition offense, and maddeningly passive in his own zone. Benson is talented and a pest, and not playing. Byram is talented, but not a stud. In the AHL, their high-end talent is basically Helenius and Mrtka. And maybe Östlund.